Centers & Institutes

Institutes

Institutes at Wake Forest are led by a faculty director and staff with a broad mission and complex interdisciplinary focus extending beyond department, school and college boundaries. An institute’s mission lies in an area of sustained and decided interest to the University as a whole. Institutes may foster and support scholarly inquiry, research, and creative activity, inspire new directions in teaching, and engage in public service activities and actions.

The purpose of the Eudaimonia Institute (EI) is to explore the elements of and institutions that support eudaimonia, or genuine human flourishing. We are creating a community of scholars dedicated to developing an interdisciplinary understanding of what eudaimonia is, what the institutions are that support it, and what its chief obstacles are, all in the hopes of enabling more people to achieve eudaimonia.

The Humanities Institute sponsors programs and provides funding for faculty in the humanities and their collaborators in other fields of study, fosters collaboration among scholars in the humanistic disciplines, and promotes cross- and interdisciplinary research and other creative activity that engages the humanities. It also supports joint faculty-student research and co-curricular activities in the humanities, and builds partnerships with the public community outside Wake Forest. In so doing, the Institute advances the university’s commitment to education and scholarship that is pro humanitate and underscores the value of the humanities for the common good.

Centers

Centers at Wake Forest are led by interdisciplinary faculty teams around a clearly defined topic or question. They enable faculty to accomplish scholarship and creative work that benefits from reaching out to other scholars or artists for additional insight, inspiration or collaboration. Centers help build intellectual community and engagement among faculty and students and provide mentoring to new members with complementary interests. Centers have a five-year cycle for application and renewal.

The mission of the BB&T Center for the Study of Capitalism is to encourage the study and examination of the nature and effects of capitalism. The Center provides a robust and encouraging intellectual community that supports investigation into the theory and practice of capitalism, business, and human prosperity. The experience and opportunity available through the Center aims to contribute to our understanding of what capitalism has been, is, and can be; what its central challenges and shortcomings are; and how we can contribute to generating and maintaining the political, economic, and moral institutions required for peaceful, prosperous, and humane life.

The Center for Bioethics, Health, and Society is a collaborative intellectual space for addressing ethical, social, and policy issues of importance for biotechnology, health care, biomedical research, and public health. The Center brings together faculty, students, and staff from all disciplines across all WFU campuses and schools, and engages academic and public stakeholders locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally to advance research, education, and communication about bioethics issues.

Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability

The world needs the leadership and engagement of universities to remediate energy and environmental problems because they generate new knowledge and technology, gather deep and varied expertise, and train future leaders. At the Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability (CEES), 60 faculty and staff across 16 departments and academic and administrative units coalesce in 3 areas of urgent concern: renewable energy research; biodiversity and ecosystem services; and policy, enterprise and ecosystem markets. It will conduct research and scholarly activities, education, and public engagement to generate new research teams and new ways of thinking.

The priority at the Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest University is to educate and inspire entrepreneurial leaders through engaged teaching, coaching and mentoring within a robust and vibrant entrepreneurial culture. The Center graduates students who have experienced the entrepreneurial life cycle. They will move from idea to concept, venture to scale and then to harvest.

The Center for Entrepreneurship offers a minor in Entrepreneurship and co-curricular programs such as The Idea Sandbox (students develop problem solving skills and solve real world issues under faculty direction), Deacon Springboard (students develop valuable ideas into concepts) and Startup Lab (our most fervent students develop concepts into ventures via access to mentors and robust seed capital).

By 2025, the vision is for the Wake Forest Center for Entrepreneurship to be a model by which other liberal arts entrepreneurship programs are measured.

Center for Functional Materials

The Center for Functional Materials (CFM) has one overarching goal: to propel Wake Forest University into the top tier of materials research. We pursue this goal by providing a common platform for researchers with an interest in materials and by overcoming barriers between the various disciplines involved in materials research at Wake Forest, including Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, and parts of the School of Medicine. CFM is involved in a broad portfolio of research activities with a large spectrum of materials reaching from organic electronics to human tissue. We bring together researchers from these disciplines to create synergistic research and education activities and opportunities at Wake Forest. Further information about CFM can be found at https://cfm.wfu.edu or by calling (336) 758 3223.

The Center for Leadership & Character at the Wake Forest University School of Business was formed to focus the School’s longstanding practice of developing leaders of character who achieve results with integrity. The Center combines a proven track record of thought leadership, practical relevance and partnerships across the Wake Forest community.

Center for Molecular Signaling

The Center for Molecular Signaling teams investigators in the life, physical, computational, and mathematical sciences to tackle basic questions about molecular communication among and within the cells of living organisms ranging from insects to plants to humans. CMS will enhance opportunities to secure external funds for research and needed equipment by linking the College, Graduate School, and School of Medicine and building connections to Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina A & T State University, and Salem College. Members will share research, instrumentation, teaching, and mentoring resources to advance all areas of the university’s mission, enhancing our national profile and attracting exciting new faculty and students.

Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials

The Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University was founded in 2004 and serves the Wake Forest University/Wake Forest Baptist Heath research communities as a broad spectrum infrastructural resource. The mission of WF-Nanotech is to provide for world class research, outstanding and unique educational opportunities, transformation of local economies.

The Center for Private Business enables privately owned businesses to achieve dreams for their business, family, employees, community and stakeholders by providing access toindustry leaders, resources, networks, and education.

By 2020, Wake Forest University will be a catalyst for economic growth in the Carolinas and will be an institution more deeply imbedded in the economic and social prosperity of our region and beyond.

Center for Retail Innovation

The Center for Retail Innovation provides resources for faculty and student-led academic and practitioner-oriented learning to help drive the future of retail. The Center arranges unparalleled educational opportunities through engagement and collaboration with industry partners, enabling students to have impact through an ability to think strategically, act practically and communicate effectively.

Drawing together artists, scholars, students, faculty, and staff from every corner of our campus, the Interdisciplinary Performance and the Liberal Arts Center (IPLACe) uses performance collaborations—with Chemistry, Religion, History, Politics, Math, Romance Languages, Neuroscience, Documentary Film, and anything else you can think of—to give us all a place, a time, and a reason to talk to each other about the things we care about.

Translational Science Center: Fostering Independence in Aging

The Translational Science Center (TSC) focuses on promoting and maintaining functional health in aging. Both past and current research projects look at the effects of interventions on cognitive function and physical activity. The center team includes medical staff, behavioral scientists and basic scientists who develop experimental interventions to improve physical and cognitive health in aging populations while using observations from these interventions to plan new studies. The center aims to develop a new undergraduate minor in translational science in addition to a graduate certificate program.

One-year Center Planning Grants

The Office of the Provost will fund planning for additional centers in the future. Each of these one-year planning grants should be used to develop and submit a five-year operational plan for a new center. If interested, please review the instructions for submitting Center Planning Grants.

Five-year Center Plans

Five-year center plans may be submitted to the Office of the Provost. The below resources are provided for your convenience.